An Investigation on the Tyrannian Language by horsechicklet |  |
In light of some fascinating articles I have read recently on the Tyrannian
language, I decided to investigate this language myself. After all, the Neopian
Public Schools cannot wither away as they have been doing with no substantial
language departments. I hope that this article, as well as its predecessors,
will encourage you to delve deeper into the realm of Tyrannia to uncover the
mystery of its language, known only by the few natives that inhabit Tyrannia.
Fortunately my Chomby, Lieaea, was willing to help. The following is an account
of she remembers about being born in Tyrannia:
I was really young, but the natives took care of me. They would speak to
each other in Tyrannian, but they spoke to all the new-born Chombys in their
limited English. I remember my eldest littermate asking to learn some words
in Tyrannian. The answer he received was 'No, no, no. No good Tyrannian. Learn
English'. This leads me to believe that the natives do not approve of their
language. They seem to think that English is better. I also know that all Tyrannian
words sound very similar. I think the language is phonetic, and they mostly
sound things out and guess the meaning. Of course they do memorise whole phrases
that mean one thing.
I thanked Lieaea and invited her to come with me on an extended tour of Tyrannia,
in hopes that the natives would be more friendly to me if I had a Chomby by
my side. Lieaea agreed happily, so we set out for the land "down under".
After arriving in Tyrannia, Lieaea and I visited the Tyrannian Food shop.
The shopkeeper greeted us saying, "Ugga Ugga Ug!" Which I assumed meant welcome.
We shared a most delicious Cactus Blossum and then Lieaea and I exited the shop
using the sign that said 'Ugga here a-ugga Tyrannia', meaning "go here to return
to Tyrannia." I think that adding a- in front of a word may mean 'to return'
or 'to go back'. Next we visited the Keno, but it appears to be a more modern
game and displayed no Tyrannian words whatsoever, so Lieaea and I quickly headed
over to the village of Tyrammet. All the Neopets dwelling in this village spoke
Tyrannian, unfortunately only Kyruggi spoke English and we were unable to get
a meeting with her, so we left unable to decipher the things that the natives
were telling us. The furniture store, I might add, was exactly the same as the
food shop. The cave paintings were fascinating, but didn't speak Tyrannian.
So we played Switch-A-Roo. The game warden said "Aka aka UMBUKU!". I wonder
if Umbuku means Switch-A-Roo. You know, um-Bu-Ku? Hmm.
Back home, I felt discouraged. I had only noticed a few simple phrases, most
of which had been used in other articles on the Tyrannian language. That's when
my Faerie Uni, Twiliyte, suggested that I check the Neopedia. Scanning articles
in the Neopedia proved a complete success (Thanks, Twi!). Here are some of the
phrases I came up with.
"Aka… Gal Uggh Uggh!"-quote Kay-Jay, M*YNCI. Translation? "Aw man…has anybody
seen my hair gel?" I believe that "aka" is a pre-word that precedes the asking
of a question to a specific person or general audience. For example, you could
say "Aka… where's my homework?!" The word implies slight distress as well. I
also quote from Sabre-X, "Ugg Bugga Nugga Ugg… Uggah!" which means, "I love
the smell of a freshly-fired Frost Cannon in the mornin'. Yehaa!!!". From this
phrase it is easy to see that ugg has several meanings, depending on the ending.
A simple "Ugg" probably means me, my, I, etc, as I don't believe the Tyrannian
language is advanced enough to have proper tenses. "Uggah!" Is obviously an
interjection that can be used in place of "Wow!", "Cool!", etc. I also think
that you can substitute one ugg for another, so if there are two in a sentence
you just use one, so instead of using the 'ugg' for I, you can put 'uggh's'
in, which are basically just syllables that help to sound out a noun or verb.
The extent of my research in the Neopedia is too great to fit in here. However,
I urge you to look up the articles, "Sticks 'n Stones", "Trrgdor, Tyrannian
Shopkeeper", "Tyrannian Concert Hall", "Tyrannian Jungle", Tyrannian Plateau",
and "Tyranu Evavu". These articles will help you better understand the culture
and language of Tyrannia. May I also suggest that Neopian Public Schools consider
adding courses on the Tyrannian Language to their schools.
Construct a Phrase in Tyrannian:
1. Openers: Ugg, Aka
2. Middle: Sound out your verbs and nouns using lots of uggah's,
ugghs, gals, etc. so it sounds like the word. You can sometimes substitute letters
instead of Us on uggas, or put a letter in front of the U.
3. End: If you like, end with an Uggah! Or Gal! If your phrase
is exciting.
Additional Resources:
May I also encourage you to check out these other articles: "Tyrannian
Language: The Language of Tyrannia", by princess_grunge, and another
article
which I cannot find *sheepish grin *. Oh, this
one too. |
